


stay with me

by indecisivebehaviors



Series: Can't fight this feeling [2]
Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: 3.10 Retcon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amanda is So Sick of everyone's shit, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Daniel, Divorced Daniel, Everyone Needs A Hug, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Johnny Lawrence Being A Good Dad, Multi, Pre-Slash, Unresolved Sexual Tension, almost murder?? but not really, children bonding through shared psychological trauma, these kids have the worst timing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:21:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29202012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indecisivebehaviors/pseuds/indecisivebehaviors
Summary: written for the prompt on cobrakaikink: There's already a couple fics on AO3 about Kreese nearly killing Daniel by stabbing him and nearly losing him made Johnny realize his feelings, but I'd like the swap of that: Daniel's slow enough that Kreese chokes Johnny into unconsciousness/not breathing, Daniel freaking out as he tries to revive him, etc.alternate summary; everyone is going to need therapy(now with a bonus chapter!)
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence, Miguel Diaz & Robby Keene, Miguel Diaz/Samantha LaRusso, Robby Keene & Samantha LaRusso
Series: Can't fight this feeling [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2200365
Comments: 40
Kudos: 190





	1. Chapter 1

Daniel is itching for a fight long before he screeches haphazardly into the parking lot. He registers the car next to his-- sitting jackknifed over two spaces and partially up on the curb- as the one he let Johnny keep and he lets the rage boil over in his stomach as he rushes towards the front door. His daughter and her friends are sitting bloody and bruised surrounded by the destroyed remnants of her home and it doesn’t matter how many times he tried to get a hold on his anger on the drive over, too fast but feeling like he was going at a crawl, but he thinks of the tear tracks on her cheeks and the fire in Amanda’s eyes, the rage on her face uncontained and he knows that rage was directed to him as much as it was at Kreese. He thinks of ‘85 and the look of deranged glee on the old man’s face at his own terror- feels the ghost of bloody, busted knuckles on his own hands.

He’s ready to knock the door off its hinges and start swinging but before he can, he hears what can only be Robby’s voice on the other side. He’s shouting something unintelligible, but he hears the panicked edge to it and doesn’t hesitate to throw open the door, blood roaring in his ears.

What he sees makes his blood run ice cold in his veins and he freezes in the doorway. Kreese has his back to him and the door, Robby is in the corner of the room, screaming at him _let him go he’s had enough please he can’t breathe_ , down where the old man has Johnny on the floor, arm locked around his neck. Johnny’s face is bright red as he struggles to breathe against the death grip around his throat, he’s digging his nails into Kreese’s arm, hard enough to draw blood that runs down his own hands, but the grip only tightens further.

He watches the scene change in front of him and he’s back in the parking lot after the tournament and he’s watching a young Johnny struggle in Kreese’s hold while his friends try to get him to just _let go come on he can’t breathe sensei please you’re gonna kill him_ while he stands back, wanting to rush over and do something, anything, but feeling completely helpless.

It’s almost like he’s watching the scene before him in slow motion, Johnny writhes on the ground, the last efforts of a desperate man before his struggle slows and he sees him go limp in the man’s hold.

_I didn’t want it to end like this._

Daniel sees red.

His limbs move without thinking, and he crosses the room in two long strides and rips Kreese up and off of him, grip hard enough to bruise, to throw him as hard as he can. He can feel the rage cloud his thoughts, doesn’t see as Robby runs to kneel down by his father’s side, just stalks forward and lands a kick to the man’s chest when he goes to turn around, sending him flying back towards the large glass windows. He charges forward, swings, but Kreese grabs him around the wrist, swings him around and he’s falling backward through the glass, landing with a grunt on his back.

He sees when Kreese leans down to grab a large shard of broken glass, and Daniel barely has enough time to react before he rushes forward, murder in his eyes, but he evades and lands another hit, the arm holding the shard falls limp at his side, but it seems not to deter him and he charges again, and Daniel can hear an almost sickening _crack_ when his foot collides with his knee and he falls to the ground, landing in a pool of glass.

He hauls the man up by his collar, and Daniel knows it’s over, knows he should throw him back down to the sidewalk, maybe call the cops, let them handle Kreese, but Daniel remembers Sam’s tears and Robby’s screams and the look of terror on Johnny’s face in that parking lot and swings.

His fist almost collides with his temple, relishes in the shocked look that crosses over the older man’s eyes when he hears a shout from the other end of the parking lot.

“Daddy! Stop!” He looks briefly to his left, sees Sam and Miguel, both still bruised and battered, running towards him, and only then does he hear another voice over the ringing in his ears.

“Dad! Dad, come on get up, this isn’t funny! Wake up! Please, Dad, you need to wake up!” The pure panic in Robby’s voice is what spurs him back into action, can see where he’s trying to shake Johnny awake, where he lays flat on his back, perfectly still and Daniel can’t see a rise and fall to his chest. 

He makes his decision then, turning his eyes back to Kreese on the ground in front of him, “Stay away from our kids.”, and cracks his fist against the man’s temple. He slumps back when he releases his collar, hears Sam scream behind him, but he only turns to the kids long enough to bark out, “Call an ambulance!”, before he’s running back into the dojo.

He falls to his knees across from Robby, ignores the pain that shoots up his leg, and leans over the other man, desperately trying to find a pulse, fingers pressed against the flesh of his neck that’s already starting to bruise in an ugly ring across his throat. He finds one at last, but it’s weak, and Johnny still isn’t breathing and he scrambles to remember the CPR class he’d taken years ago at Amanda’s insistence, back when Sam was only a child and he’d started teaching her karate. Back before his marriage fell apart, his child wasn’t getting beaten and bloodied, before he’d met Johnny’s eyes in the dealership that day and his life had been turned on its head. He sends a silent, grateful _thank you_ to her now as he puts his hands over Johnny’s ribs and starts to count out his compressions. 

_Please, Johnny, please you need to wake up. Johnny, you can’t do this, you can’t leave me like this you selfish fucking bastard. I need you, please, wake up. Breathe, please!_ He doesn't know if the words come out of his mouth or are just being screamed out in his own head but he doesn't care just needs him to _wake up._

He’s three rounds in when he hears a gut-wrenching _snap_ from somewhere in his chest, the noise raising bile in the back of his throat. He’s seven rounds in, arms aching and shaking from exertion, when he jerks his head to the sound of a sharp intake of breath.

“Dad!” He’d forgotten Robby was even there, his voice is wrecked, and he realizes almost as an afterthought that the boy had probably been crying the whole time as he’d watched. He hears Sam and Miguel rush over from where they’d been standing behind him, quickly kneeling down by his feet, heedless to who they were sitting next to, “Sensei!”

Johnny doesn’t open his eyes even as he reaches out blindly and Daniel takes his hand in his, gripping tightly. He moves quickly, trying to be as gentle as possible when he lifts Johnny’s head into his lap, doesn’t think about the throbbing pain in his knee. He cups the side of his face, thumb gentle running over his cheek and he tries to keep the panic out of his voice.

“Johnny, Johnny, hey man please I need you to look at me okay? I need you to open your eyes and look at me.” It takes a second for him to crack his eyes open, and Daniel sighs in relief when blue finally meets brown.

“Daniel?” He asks, his voice hoarse, like he’d swallowed glass, and barely a whisper, and he has to strain to hear him. He threads his own fingers through Johnny’s and squeezes where they lay near his collarbone. 

“It’s me, I’m here okay? Everything’s gonna be okay, help is coming.” His voice shakes, throat tightening even as he tries to push back the tears he can feel welling up in his eyes. He feels Johnny’s body tense under him, shutting his eyes tight as he groans in pain. He lets out a breath before he sags back against his legs and doesn’t open his eyes, breath coming out quick and ragged. “Johnny, no, hey, you need to stay awake.” The panic rises in his throat.

They both startle when the first tear rolls down Daniel’s cheek and drips down against the side of his face, and Johnny’s eyes blink back open. Daniel is quick to try and collect himself, tries to control his breathing, calm down enough to stop the flood of tears, but then Johnny’s reaching up with the hand not held tight, movements sluggish, and he’s wiping the streak of tears with his thumb, looking at him with some emotion he can’t think clearly enough to name. Daniel can feel his breath hitch, his chest aches, and he chokes out a small sob. Mercifully, he can finally hear the sound of sirens in the distance.

“You can do that for me, can’t you? Just this one thing okay? One thing and I’ll never ask you for anything ever again. Just stay awake a little bit longer. You’ll do that for me right?” His words are gentle and he gives him a watery smile that doesn’t reach anywhere near his eyes, feels more tears come even as Johnny nods. 

“For you, yeah.”

He doesn’t dare look up to meet the eyes of any of his crying children. He keeps brown locked on the blue below, can’t tear them away, _needs_ to make sure they stay open, even as he hears Sam’s choked off sobs, Miguel’s shaky breaths, and Robby’s muffled tears.

Eventually, he sees the bright flashing light come through the windows, hears the siren cut off just outside the door and he’s being pulled back from him, forced to back away and let go of his hand and he hesitates, squeezes one more time before allowing one of the paramedics to usher them all outside while they lift Johnny up onto a gurney and out to where the ambulance waits by the curb. He’s being sat down on the sidewalk, and he doesn’t take his eyes away from the back of the ambulance, even while he answers the woman’s questions, where they’re hooking him up to IV’s and an oxygen mask is placed over his face. Somewhere to his left, he hears Robby talking to another paramedic, asking what happened, who they were. He hears a quiet, _they’re our dads_ , before he has to focus back on the woman in front of him. She cleans up the smaller cuts that litter his body where he’d fallen against the ground, his busted knuckles, and the cut on his face he didn’t know he had, belatedly remembering the ring on Kreese’s hand. He breaks his gaze away to look back to the shattered pile of glass, blood splattered on the sidewalk, but there is no sign of Kreese’s body. Terror shoots up his spine.

He quickly cuts off the question she’s asking him, “Where’s the man who was laying there?” He asks, panic clawing at his chest again. She gives him a soft and placating look and says calmly, “When we arrived there was no one else here except your partner and your kids.”

Daniel almost goes to correct her, but the words die in his throat when another paramedic calls out from the truck, “Hey we’re ready to head out, let’s get the husband and the kids in here.” Something in his chest twists. He stands quickly, on shaky legs, wincing when he puts weight on his bad leg, and the woman helps him hobble over to get where Robby has already been sat down in the back with his father. Sam and Miguel are helped in right after. Sam curls into his side, still softly crying, her hand a vice grip on Miguel’s beside her who has tear tracks drying on his face. Robby chokes out another sob next to him and he doesn’t even hesitate to wrap his arm tightly around his shoulders and the boy leans heavily into his other side. He wants to reach out, take Johnny’s hand again but he stops, doesn’t want to risk dislodging the IV, but then he sees Johnny’s eyes flutter open again. He turns his head slightly until he can meet his eyes, searches for a long moment, and must find what he’s looking for, because then he turns his palm up on the bed, reaches out. Daniel threads his fingers through his gently, fails to not let his tears fall again when he sees the small upturn of the side of his mouth.

The ride to the hospital is both agonizingly long and short enough to give him whiplash when they stop suddenly and he and the kids are being let out to be led into the building after Johnny’s gurney. He cries out in pain when he steps down, his knee buckling under his weight, hears Sam cry out, “Dad!” 

But he never meets the asphalt, feeling two separate sets of hands grab him from either side and haul him back upright so he can balance on one leg. When he opens his eyes, seeing stars from where he’d clenched them tight against the pain, he sees that it was Robby and Miguel who’d managed to rush to his side. His breathing is heavy and ragged when they guide him to sit on the edge of the truck, groaning in pain when he accidentally knocks it against the cold metal. 

He hears a paramedic saying that they’d grab a wheelchair from inside, while he struggles to regulate his breathing, the pain in his body finally hitting after the adrenaline recedes, and Sam rushes over then, eyes full of worry while she fusses over him. The boys still bookend him, not leaving his side until someone returns and helps sit him down in the chair and they wheel him into the hospital. Over his shoulder, someone is asking him what happened to his leg.

“Old injury. I’ll be fine, I just strained it too much. I'll be okay.” He says, trying to keep his voice level, for the sake of the kids hovering at his side. When they wheel him through the doors and he doesn’t see Johnny anywhere he panics, “Where did they take him?”

The nurse wheeling him through the hallway briefly puts a hand on his shoulder, “Not to worry, they’re just taking him for a few tests. We’re going to set you up in a private room with some painkillers, have a doctor take a look at that knee, and they’ll bring him in with you when they’re done.” This relaxes the tension in his body a fraction, and he allows the boys to help him sit up on the bed when they enter the room. The kids continue to hover long after they finish hooking him up to an IV of his own, and a doctor has checked over his knee, confirming that it is indeed not broken, just dislocated, resetting it quickly, and wrapping it in a brace so he doesn’t move it too much. His body finally settles into the mattress when the painkillers finally kick in. Sam comes over then, sitting on the bed by his side and she wraps her arms around his shoulders, and he holds her tight to his chest, feels her tears against his skin, and doesn’t let go for a long time.

She releases him, goes to sit next to Miguel where he is sat on one of the plastic chairs by the bed, a hard line to his jaw and a barely contained rage in his eyes, and Daniel follows his gaze to where Robby hovers by the door, freezing like a deer in headlights when he meets Daniel’s eyes. He wants to cry at the look on the boy’s face then, he looks completely terrified, like any sudden movement will send him running through the open door. His eyes rimmed with red, tears drying on his face, hands shaking at his sides.

Daniel makes sure to keep his movements slow when he reaches out towards him, sees the boy’s eyes widen, and his voice is soft when he says, “Robby, come here please.” But there is an edge to his tone that doesn’t allow for any argument, and he sees the boy tense, ready to flee, before his face crumbles, choking on a fresh wave of tears as he rushes forward and collapses into Daniel’s chest. He can barely get the words out through his tears, muffled by his shirt that he clings to like a lifeline, a broken stream of _I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m so sorry it’s my fault_ falling from his lips. He clings tightly to the boy in his arms, tries his best to soothe him, cutting off his broken mantra, “It’s alright, everything’s okay now. Everyone’s safe now. It isn’t your fault.” 

Robby continues to cry against his chest, but he does stop mumbling incoherently after a minute, and he chances a look at Sam and Miguel over his shoulder. Sam is crying quietly again, looking more exhausted than he thinks he’s ever seen her, looking in their direction but with a distant look in her eyes that tells him that she isn’t really seeing them. Miguel is still at her side, holding her hand, but he’s looking at Robby like it’s for the first time, and he has fresh tears in his eyes and his face is softer now than it was before.

Eventually, when Robby has calmed down enough that his sobs are only small hiccups, he sits up on his own but doesn’t move to get up from the bed, and Daniel takes it for the win that it is and settles back down against the pillow at his back. Not long after, his ears perk up at the sound of wheels just outside the door and he holds his breath when Johnny is rolled into the room. 

The first thing that hits him is just how tired the man looks, bags more pronounced under his eyes, and the crease between his brows deeper than before. He’s hooked up to oxygen still, but it’s no longer the face mask he’d had in the truck, and his shirt hangs open, bandages wrapped tightly around his chest. The bruise around his neck has only gotten darker and the sight of it makes him feel suddenly sick. His knuckles are bruised but they've been cleaned and bandaged. Johnny meets his eyes across the room and gives him a small smile and Daniel’s chest feels lighter than it had in days.

“Sensei!” Miguel is the first to act, springing to his feet and rushing to Johnny’s side. The man is sitting up in bed and he lets Miguel wrap his arms tightly around his shoulders, almost manages to hide the wince of pain, but when the boy tries to lean back and apologize, Johnny just huffs out a laugh and holds him close. Neither of them cries outright, but their eyes are wet when Miguel finally lets him go and stands back at his side, and they smile at each other. 

Robby is doing his best to look anywhere except at the two of them, his whole body a tense line. Daniel watches Johnny’s face sober when he looks at Robby sitting at his side on the bed. The sadness in his eyes is obvious but Daniel sees something in his gaze that he doesn't think he’s ever seen before-- hope.

Johnny’s voice is a harsh rasp, almost whisper quiet, “Robby...”, and when the boy jerks his head up to look him in the eyes, it feels like everyone in the room is holding their breath for a tense second, before Johnny tries again, “Robby.”

He stands up on shaky legs and crosses the few inches to Johnny’s side, and when Johnny reaches out Robby curls against his father’s chest and lets himself be held in his tight embrace. One arm wraps around his son’s waist and the other goes to the back of his head, carding his fingers through his hair. He can tell Robby is crying again by the way his shoulders shake, but his voice is steady when he says, “I’m so sorry Dad.”

Johnny’s voice is softer than he’s ever heard him when he speaks, a tear finally falling to where he presses a kiss to the top of his head, “I know. I’m sorry too, Pup.”

After a few minutes, Robby has calmed down again and his watery smile is small but it’s there all the same when he looks back at his dad. He doesn’t flinch or pull away when Johnny quietly wipes the tears from his face.

It’s quiet for a minute, the tension in the room finally eased, when he hears Sam stand from her chair and walk slowly to the other side of the bed where Miguel is still standing. She sits on the edge and doesn’t hesitate to wrap her arms around Johnny’s shoulders, chin resting in the crook of his neck. He sees Johnny tense, eyes wide in surprise before his face softens and he returns the embrace, nearly dwarfing her in his arms.

“I’m really glad you’re okay Mr. Lawrence.” She says quietly and pulls back, eyes shining and she huffs out a small laugh, smiling bright when his voice comes out impossibly fond, “Thanks, Princess.”

Later when the doctor comes back, she hops off the bed and comes to sit with him again, but Robby and Miguel stay by Johnny’s side while they go over some of the test results from earlier. He can’t help but be grateful at the news, even though it really isn’t pretty-- a partially crushed trachea, mild concussion, and a few fractured and broken ribs, most likely a combination of the fight and from his own attempt at CPR. At the end of the day, he knows it could have been so much worse. They’ve already set and wrapped Johnny’s ribs, and the doctor tells them that while they’d like to keep them both overnight just in case, they’ll be cleared to go home the next day, with painkillers, for mandatory bed rest for the next several days and an order for no strenuous activity for either of them for several weeks.

Johnny groans at the news. Daniel knows how much he hates the idea of being cooped up for so long because he can already feel the itch to get up and move and it’s only been a few hours. Robby shoots his dad a pointed look and Miguel lightly slaps him in the shoulder, both struggling to hide matching grins, but the man just grins at them and barks out a laugh that ends quickly with a sharp wince. The doctor leaves shortly after and Johnny looks over and meets his gaze and rolls his eyes with a smirk on his face before winking, and Daniel can feel the laughter bubbling in his throat and he grins right back.

The silence is filled with light barbs and teasing, mostly between Miguel and Johnny, before Robby gets pulled into the mix, and Sam sits with him, laughing at the three of them going back and forth. Both boys work well in tandem, ribbing the man mercilessly, and while he gives as good as he gets, he is really no match for two teenage boys.

Daniel watches, and wonders not for the first time how strange they must look, Johnny and him, with their kids in this little white room, and while the kids aren’t paying attention, he just looks at Johnny’s face, lighter and happier than he thinks he’s ever seen him. The kids are laughing at something he doesn’t hear when Johnny glances over and catches him staring, his grin softening into a smile that makes his insides feel warm and his face flush.

Later, he passes his wallet to Sam and tells the kids to go grab something from the vending machine, belatedly remembering to tell both Miguel and Sam to call their mothers to let them where they are. He watches Robby hesitate to follow Sam and Miguel but the other boy just looks back at him with a crooked smile, and the three of them leave the room in search of much-deserved snacks.

After he’s sure the kids are out of earshot, he looks over at Johnny again to see he’s already looking in his direction. 

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

They’re quiet for a minute just sitting there in comfortable silence, before a wide, almost playful grin breaks across Johnny’s face, “You know you look like shit right now LaRusso?”

Daniel snorts a surprised laugh, mock glaring at him, “You’re one to talk, you ass. Besides I thought we’d reached Daniel by now.” He means to joke about the last part, he really does, but he feels his throat tighten, and the joke feels hollow somehow.

Johnny seems to notice his reaction, for all the good it does to try and hide it. His face falls back into that soft, almost impossibly fond look again.

_“Daniel.”_

Daniel wants to memorize the way Johnny says his name; a quiet, almost reverent sound. His voice still has a rough, graveled edge to it, making his already deep voice pitch that much lower. It makes him dizzy, his heart stuttering in his chest, and that warmth coils low in his stomach. He doesn't think he’s ever liked the sound of his name as much as he does when it’s Johnny who says it.

Daniel figures he’s been staring at him, silent, for a beat too long when he sees his mouth shift into an almost knowing smirk, and he realizes he knows that because he’s been staring at his lips, watching the way they curved around his name. He blinks and looks up, and Johnny’s eyes are teasing, and there’s a heat to them too that catches him off guard. But there’s something else, something he remembers seeing in his eyes only a few hours ago, looking up at him from the floor of the dojo.

He watches Johnny’s eyes flick down quickly to his mouth, as he bites his lip, almost subconsciously, at the attention, before they quickly move up and he can feel the heat radiating from them in waves. _I should say something_ , he thinks and opens his mouth to do just that.

“Seriously?” His mouth shuts with a loud click, and they both turn their heads to the doorway where their kids are standing. The voice belonged to Robby, standing with his arms crossed, eyebrow raised. 

“Are you guys fighting again?” Miguel asks, looking amused and exasperated, and Johnny scoffs, rolling his eyes, even as he plasters on his trademark smirk, “No. We are not fighting again.”

The boys look like they absolutely _do not_ believe a word out of his mouth, but they go back to good-naturedly poking fun at him, each taking their place on either side of the bed. When Daniel looks at Sam though, who’s being uncharacteristically quiet, still standing in the door, she catches his eye, a puzzled look on her face, and he can tell the gears are turning in her head, and he feels the flush creep up his neck at her scrutiny. 

He can see when something _clicks_ in her head, realization dawning on her face, her eyes go wide, darting between him and Johnny. He can’t tell exactly what she’s thinking and panic wells up in his chest for a fraction of a second before he sees something else flash across her face, and then she’s smiling at him, and crossing the room to sit on the bed, wrapping her arms around his neck, and he barely has time to reciprocate before she sits back and she’s back to laughing and joking with the boys. 

He sees Johnny glance at him from the corner of his eyes, brow raised in a silent question, and he just shrugs back. The man looks like he wants to say something and thinks better of it, going back to talking with the boys who are now animatedly bickering about something he can tell Johnny can’t quite follow but is making a valiant effort to try anyway. 

The sight of him now, in easy conversation with both his boys and his own daughter laughing and talking away without a care in the world, makes his imagination run wild and he’s lost to his thoughts.

_Robby and Sam, sitting at the counter at breakfast, laughing and bickering like siblings. Anthony’s there with them, then Miguel, and they’re happy. He’s standing in the kitchen with Johnny at his side, exchanging easy smiles over the rim of his coffee mug._

_The kids are out in the living room with their friends, while the two of them cook dinner and they’re working together, comfortably moving around each other, laughing when they do bump into one or the other. Johnny with his arms around his waist and head on his shoulder when he’s at the stove._

_Feeling the tug at his waist where Johnny has his fingers hooked in his belt loops and smiling down at him, he's tall enough that Daniel has to pull him down by the collar._

_Sparring matches that end with heated kisses and rough hands and aches that have nothing to do with bruised knuckles or bruised pride._

_Waking up to sleepy smiles and lazy kisses with morning breath and falling asleep with a comforting warmth at his back._

_Training the kids in the yard, styles different but same, in perfect balance. Watching them improve every day, seeing Robby, Sam, Miguel, and the others standing with trophies at the tournament and watching Johnny look at his kids, their kids, with the look of a proud father._

_Johnny, looking at him with that unreadable gaze, but he can read it now, knows he looks back at him the same way. With awe, and wonder, something that feels a little like love._

Oh.

“Dad?” His attention snaps back to look at Sam, who looks at him expectantly. He glances towards the other bed and finds that its occupants are also looking like they’re waiting for an answer to a question he didn’t hear. 

He looks back at Sam, “Sorry, sweetheart, I zoned out for a minute. What were you saying?” He tries unsuccessfully to fight the warmth he can feel on his face, embarrassed at being caught daydreaming.

But Sam only shrugs, “Mom and Carmen just texted us, they’re on their way. They wanna see you both first before..” She hesitates, worrying her lip between her teeth, “before they take us home.”

“Oh.” He mentally slaps himself for that, “Well that’s probably a good idea. It’s really late and you should really get some sleep.”

He glances around again and sees Sam’s worried look mirrored on the boys’ faces. He looks up at Johnny when the man sighs and shakes his head, “You three are not going to stick around and play bodyguard.” His eyes widen in recognition, so _that’s_ what this was about.

"We can't just leave you here all alone! Not after tonight." Sam's voice cuts in.

"Sam, we will be fine here for a few hours." Johnny gently chides her.

“But Dad, what if-” Robby tries, but Johnny cuts him off.

“No, no buts kid. You three are gonna go home and go to bed and finally let us sleep.” Johnny’s tone doesn’t leave room for much argument, but that has never let his son stop him.

“You can’t expect us to just leave you here! Neither of you can fight like this if that asshole comes back.” Robby is scowling at his dad, but he knows the anger isn’t really directed at him.

“What’s he gonna do, Robby? Sneak past security, all of the staff and patients, and hallways full of cameras to kick our asses in public in front of a live audience?” Johnny shoots back.

“Robby, you’re dad is right. The best thing is for you to go and rest. Not even Kreese could get back here without being noticed.” His voice is far gentler than Johnny’s had been, aiming for a placating tone, not that it works.

“But what if that psycho does manage to get in here and find you?” Miguel asks, voice bordering somewhere between scared and frustrated.

“What if he does, Diaz? You three gonna kick his ass on your own?” Johnny’s tone is sarcastic, harsh even, and he can tell his voice gets rougher with every word, straining to talk this long and keep his voice even.

Sam speaks up, her voice small but sure, “At least if we were here, one of us could run and go get help.”

“Sam-”

“Exactly! Sam’s the fastest, she can run and grab security, and Robby and I can distract him, right?”

“Right! Dad, we can totally take him-”

_“Quiet!” “Enough!”_

The kids all freeze, eyes wide as they dart back and forth between the two men, but the silence only lasts a second before Johnny winces in pain, hunching forward, and starts coughing hard.

“Robby, go get a nurse, Miguel go get him some water,” when the boys hesitate a second too long he adds a sharp, “Now. Both of you. Go.” and that’s all it takes to send them both to their feet and rushing out the door. He makes an attempt to get up to check on him, he's no longer hacking up a lung but his face is contorted in pain, but all he manages to do is sit halfway up on the bed and hiss at the pain. He feels Sam’s hand on his shoulder, and he meets her gaze, her eyes hold a silent apology and she moves to stand up. She goes to Johnny’s side, sitting close, almost pressed to his side. When she puts her hand on his back, he almost flinches back at the touch before he relaxes and she starts rubbing slow small circles on his back, his breathing ragged.

Miguel is the first to return, water in hand, and he cracks the lid off before handing it to Johnny who takes a long pull from the bottle, almost choking again as it goes down before he sags back on the bed. Robby returns a second later, a nurse in tow, and Miguel and Robby both have to move out of the way while she checks him over. They have the decency to look sorry at least, and neither of them moves to start the argument again when the nurse eventually leaves with the promise of more painkillers.

When he thinks he isn’t going to get interrupted, Daniel starts again, “We are not going to argue about this. You kids know as well as we do that Kreese is dangerous and if he was to show his face here, and you tried to step in, the only thing that would happen would be that at least one of you would get seriously hurt-” He puts his hand up when he sees Robby go to speak, “- or worse. You three are going to go home, clean up, eat something that isn’t from a hospital vending machine and go to bed. You can come back in the morning when you get up. Do you understand me?”

The kids all look at him, then at Johnny, who looks as exhausted as he feels, but his face is stern, and back to him before they all nod. The room is still silent, save for the gentle beep coming from the machines around the room, when he hears the distinctive click of heels fast approaching the room and both Amanda and Carmen emerge from the doorway.

Both women have matching looks of concern on their faces when they rush forward, Amanda immediately throwing her arms around Sam, and he sees Carmen go to engulf Miguel in a bone crushing hug before she begins fussing over Johnny, and Daniel finds it endlessly amusing at how uncomfortable he looks at the extra attention, “Carmen seriously, I’m fine. It looks a lot worse than it is.”

She doesn’t look like she believes him for a second, “Don’t give me any of that mierda. I’m a nurse, remember?” He doesn’t speak spanish, but Miguel looks startled enough for Daniel to guess the meaning.

He doesn’t get to watch the interaction after that because he is soon face to face with his very pissed looking ex-wife. He can’t help but shrink at the way she’s looking at him, and when he tries to put on his most convincing car salesman smile he knows it comes across as more of a grimace than anything. He goes to speak, not really knowing what to say, but before he can utter a word her face drops and he’s being pulled up into a hug. He doesn't have time to react before she’s pulling back and forcing a neutral expression on her face, even if he can see her eyes are wet and still a little angry.

“What happened?” Her voice is tight, clipped around the edges. He winces at the question, glancing over at Johnny. Everyone is looking at them now, except him, eyes glazed over and trained somewhere near the foot of his bed. 

When he doesn’t answer immediately, biting the inside of his cheek, thinking of how to even begin to talk about what happened, Sam’s voice comes tentatively from the foot of the bed, “Mom.. I think Dad and Mr. Lawrence are pretty exhausted now. Maybe we should all talk about this tomorrow?” Amanda looks at her for a long second, before looking around the room, and sighing before she looks back at him.

“Alright. I’m just glad all of you are okay.” Her voice is softer now, “We should get the kids home, so everyone can finally get some sleep, but we are going to talk about this.”

Both women start to shuffle their respective children towards the door, Miguel and Sam hesitate in saying their goodbyes, when he sees Robby still shifting awkwardly in his seat on Johnny’s bed. He must notice it too because he turns to his son, “Robby come on we already talked about this. You can’t stay here overnight.”

The boy doesn’t turn to look at him, eyes down where he’s tugging on a loose string on the sleeve of his gi, that Daniel only now has the presence of mind to realize he's still wearing.

“It’s not--” he cuts himself off, taking a deep breath and starting over, “It’s not that. All of my stuff is still at the dojo. I’ve been sleeping in the backroom.” His chest aches hearing that and he knows Johnny is feeling the same way.

“Robby, even if it was safe to go back there tonight, they’ve probably got it sectioned off as an active crime scene--”

“I know,” He cuts him off quickly, “I just.. I don’t have anything else stashed anywhere, they only let me grab my shoes on the way out.” His frustration is clear on his face, and he’s about to turn to Amanda and ask her to take him somewhere to get something to wear, it’s cut short.

“You can come back with us,” Everyone turns to face Miguel, who looks about as surprised as everyone else does that he’d just said that. “If you want. You can borrow some clothes for now until you can get your stuff back. If- if that’s okay?” He turns to his mom, who’s surprise has morphed into concern. She furrows her brow, the confliction evident on her face as she looks back and forth between her son and Robby, who is still looking at the other boy in shock, before she settles back on Miguel’s face.

Her face softens, a small, warm smile, and nods, “Yes Miggy, I think that’d be just fine.”

Miguel turns back to Robby, with his own crooked, but genuine smile, “Well, uh, the offers there, if you want it.”

“I-” Robby's voice cracks, breathes in a long, shaky breath, “Yeah,” he hesitates and with a small, almost shy smile, he adds, “Thanks Diaz.”

He can feel the lump form in his throat, watching them, and he can see Johnny blinking back his own tears. Things move quickly after that, he kisses Sam’s forehead when she comes back to hug him again. Johnny wraps both boys up in his arms before they head out, jokingly reminding them to _behave yourselves_ , and he gratefully accepts the hug from Robby when he trades places with Sam so she can say her goodbyes to Johnny. Miguel surprises him again, when he steps forward and hugs him after, and it’s stilted and a bit awkward but he appreciates it nonetheless, and his smile is genuine when the boy pulls back.

“We’ll be back first thing in the morning, okay Daddy?” Sam calls out.

Robby chuckles, looking at his dad, “Yeah, bright and early Pops. No rest for the wicked.” 

Johnny barks out a laugh, wincing slightly, before rolling his eyes and shoving him lightly towards the door, “Yeah, yeah, whatever kid. Get outta here, the lot of ya.” The kids' laughs can be heard down the hall after they’ve gone, switching off the overhead lights so the only brightness comes from the crack under the door and the glow of the monitors. He can hear more than see Johnny fiddling with the remote on the bed, cursing quietly until he figures out how to lower it down, the mechanical whir of the gears loud in the otherwise silent room. He chuckles, goes to do the same, and soon the two are laying back in comfortable silence.

Daniel can feel the exhaustion from the day settling deep in his bones, feels his mind try and pull him into sleep, but after several minutes of just staring up at the ceiling, he sighs. As much as he wants to sleep, his body still feels like a live wire. He shuts his eyes tight, trying to will himself into unconsciousness, before he finally gives up. He hasn’t heard anything from Johnny’s side of the room, thinks the man must have already fallen asleep, _the lucky bastard_ , when he turns his head to look at him he can barely make out his silhouette in the darkness, he’s startled to find that Johnny is already looking at him. Bright blue eyes stare back at him, reflecting the glow of the monitors around them.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

Johnny huffs out a small laugh, and Daniel smiles back through the darkness. It’s silent again for a second before the man asks, whisper quiet, “Can’t sleep?”

Daniel shrugs, even though he knows Johnny probably can’t see the movement, whispers back, “Nope. You?”

“Nah. No rest for the wicked, remember?” His voice is teasing, but he sounds utterly exhausted. He turns more fully to his side, careful not to jostle his bad leg, so he can better look at his face. Neither of them looks away, and Daniel can feel the ache in his limbs, wants nothing more than to reach out and take his hand, thread his fingers through Johnny’s own, feel the pulse under his fingertips, a gentle reminder that he is _here and safe and alive_. He flexes his fingers, stretching out his arm off the bed and lets it hang silently between them. He sees Johnny do the same, but there’s too much distance between them to reach, so they both just lay there, hands stretch out for several minutes.

He startles when Johnny mumbles a _fuck this_ and suddenly sits up sharply, grunting in pain, “Johnny, what the hell are you--” but he can’t finish before the other man is up on his feet and then he’s groaning at the effort to pull his bed closer to his side of the room, trying to be careful not to hit anything important in the dark. When he’s maneuvered everything over so there’s less than a foot between them, Johnny lays back down slowly, hissing at the movement, before settling with a loud sigh. Daniel watches in rapt fascination as Johnny turns his face back towards him and holds out his hand again, palm up in silent invitation and he just stares at the extended hand for a moment.

“Is this okay?” His voice is quiet and unsure for the first time but he doesn’t move to retract his hand. His tone shakes him out of his daze and he reaches out to thread their fingers together. He can feel the rhythmic pulse of his heartbeat under his fingers.

He smiles, and sees a matching one rise on Johnny’s face, “Yeah. It’s okay.”

When sleep finally pulls him under, he dreams of sand and sea salt and blue eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens before the kids arrive?  
> alternatively; what happens when I have a bad day and just really wanna make these two assholes happy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (this is a much shorter chapter, but honestly, I just wanted to write fluff today)

Waking up in unfamiliar places wasn’t exactly all that new to him. Binge drinking will do that to you sometimes. Normally it was the floor of some shitty bar restroom, or the sidewalk, outside his front door, in bed with some chick whose name he couldn’t remember, and once, memorably, in Mexico.

Waking up in a hospital, even despite  _ why _ he was there, was definitely one of the least unpleasant.  _ Especially _ when he remembered why his hand was so warm.

Somehow during the night, they’d managed not to let go, the thought making something in his chest almost hurt, but not in the way it should have been. He looked over, where Daniel was still lost to the world, and for a second all he could see was that scrappy kid from Jersey; the lines on his face smoothed over, expression peaceful in his sleep. 

Johnny was reluctant to let go but fuck he really needed to take a piss.

He slowly extricated his hand, unhooking himself from the machines, moving as silently as possible in the low light of the room towards to restroom tucked away in the corner, silently grateful for whatever fucking insurance LaRusso had that let them get this honestly pretty great room.

When he returned, he wasn’t all that surprised to see him, sitting up in bed, still wiping the sleep from his eyes. He gave him a slow, sleepy smile when he reentered the room, “I was wondering where you’d run off to.”

He chuckled ignoring the pain that shot through his ribs, “Well, y’know, nature calls.”

The almost lazy grin stretched further across his face, and he raised his hand out towards him, “C’mere.”

Johnny slowly made his way over to the bed, sitting up with a grunt, near his hip, Daniel taking his hand again. The silence is comfortable, stretching out between them. 

Daniel, of course, has to ruin a good thing by opening his mouth, “We should... probably talk about this.”

He knows he hasn’t succeeded in hiding his discomfort when Daniel bites his lip, failing to force down an amused smile. He squeezes his hand and teases, “What? Big man, Johnny Lawrence afraid to talk about something as girly as  _ feelings _ ? Who woulda guessed?”

He groans, sending him a mock glare, “Shut up,  _ Daniel. _ You already know this isn’t exactly up my alley.”

“Well,” LaRusso drags out the word with a downright playful grin, reaching up to tug at the collar of his shirt, “I can always start you off with something a little more your speed.”

His brain short circuits for a second before, “Thank  _ fuck. _ ” It’s all the invitation he needs to surge forward, happily ignoring the pain in his ribs at the motion.

It’s slow and soft, but there’s an undercurrent of  _ need _ there, and it’s enough to make him feel a little lightheaded. The hand on his shirt moves up, thumb tracing over his jaw, and he shifts on the bed so he can get a better angle. When he runs his tongue over the seam of his lips, Daniel just sighs in content and parts easily under his mouth. There’s no fight for control, not really, just the slow, easy slide of lips and tongue. After a minute, he can start to feel the smile forming on Daniel’s lips and he doesn’t even try to fight off his own. He pulls back only enough to lean his forehead against his temple.

“You’re not just gonna try and go sleep this off now right?” He means it as a joke, really he does, but he regrets it immediately when Daniel pulls back enough to look him in the eyes, his small smile turned sad.

“I didn’t...” he trails off and Johnny can hear the waver in his voice, “I didn’t know if you’d even remember when you woke up; if it meant anything. I wanted to ask but then everything just... spiraled and I never got the chance, and you never said anything either. I didn’t  _ know. _ ”

He does his best to swallow the lump in his own throat, “Well when you never mentioned it, when I saw you after that. I didn’t want to-” he cuts himself off, closing his eyes before he starts over, a wry smile on his face, “I should’ve said something, but when you didn’t say anything, I assumed you just wanted to forget it ever even happened.”

“Johnny...” The hand in his squeezes, gentle, and a thumb brushes over his cheek, “Look at me,” he hesitates but opens them when he feels lips press at the corner of his mouth, “I’ve never wanted to forget about you.”

And what is he supposed to say to that really? He can’t think of a single goddamn thing, so he leans back in to capture his lips. It’s much more chaste than the last one, even as he tries to convey the emotions trapped in his skull, wanting Daniel to just  _ know _ what going through his head. When he pulls back he’s pleased to see the sad expression gone from his face, replaced by the same longing he’d seen the night before. He’s sure his expression mirrors Daniel’s own.

But, stuck here, under the bright fluorescents and surrounded by white walls, he knows this really isn’t the place for that, so he forces himself to try and lighten the mood, “So we’re both just really fucking stupid, huh? I could’ve been doing this for,  _ literally, _ months at this point.”

Daniel laughs, and somewhere in the back of his mind Johnny decides it’s his favorite sound, a grin stretching over his face, “Yes, John, we are both incredibly fucking stupid,” his grin softens, “I missed you.”

He can feel a real, genuine smile creep over his own face, and he goes to hide his face, lips against his temple, “Missed you too, Bambi.”

He chuckles low in his throat when Daniel groans, “Why do you keep calling me that?”

He doesn’t bother to hide the amusement on his face, even if his voice is trying for something like sincere, “It’s been 30 years and you still have the biggest fucking doe eyes I’ve ever seen."

  
  


Daniel groans again.

“Knock, knock.”

He startles, sitting up fast enough to force a wince, when he hears the nurse come in. He goes to pull back his hand, mostly on instinct, but Daniel holds fast, tugging until they’re sitting folded in his lap. He gives him an exasperated, but fond look, “Think again Lawrence.”

He’s self-aware enough to look sheepish at that.

“Oh,” the nurse seems surprised, but she chuckles, “Mr. LaRusso, you really shouldn’t be out of bed.”

He blinks, twice, three times, before turning to look back at Daniel in surprise because  _ what the actual fuck _ . It’s his turn to look nervous, but he just shrugs.

When he turns back to the nurse, he plasters on a wide grin, “Well, y’know how it is? Can’t leave him alone for a second.” The slap on his shoulder is totally worth it.

When the nurse concedes to the fact that, really, nothing is going to convince him to move back to his own bed, she just gives them a knowing smile and moves the IV drip and the heart rate monitor over to the foot of the bed to hook him back up. She moves around, doing her tests and checking vitals that he really doesn’t pay attention to until she turns back to them, “Well it looks like everything looks good. We’ll get your doctor in here to double-check, but you should be able to check out before noon.”

“That’s great, thank you.” Daniel says, polite as ever.

She smiles and heads to leave the room, but stops in the doorway to turn back to them, “I hope you don’t mind my asking, but how long have you two been together?”

Johnny looks over at Daniel, who worries his bottom lip between his lip, trying to think of the answer, because  _ holy shit _ was that more of a complicated answer than it should be.

He could be honest, really, but when he turns back to the nurse, he chuckles, voice impossibly fond, “36 years.”

The kiss he gets when she finally leaves the room is very much worth the lie.

And anyway if he’s being honest? He’s been Daniel’s since 1984.

...

_ God when did I become such a fucking sap, _ he thinks, but he can’t really bring himself to give a shit.

That also doesn’t stop him from pulling back, with a shit eating grin on his face, “So, it’s  _ Mr. LaRusso _ now is it?”

Daniel just rolls his eyes and pulls him back down, mumbling against his lips.

“Shut up, Blondie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had someone ask about a "morning after" scene for our favorite karate dads and it took me a minute to realize that I hadn't already done that??  
> So anyway here's this lol  
> No betas here folks

**Author's Note:**

> so this was supposed to be pure angst but I'm too soft for that  
> also shoutout to ghoststar(phantomcomet on tumblr) for hyping me up enough to post this  
> no beta- we die like men


End file.
